What is Technology?
In today’s world(2024), just about anyone can and will give you an answer to the question of what is technology. Most will probably site examples rather than offer a definition. You will almost certainly hear responses that technology is: computers, smart phones, TVs, radios, cameras, fighter jets, satellites, robots, autonomous cars, space ships and more. These examples are not incorrect, but most people probably won’t try to put a specific definition on it. The few who try to define technology will often come up with something akin to: “advanced inventions of humanity that make life easier.” Again, this is not wrong but it shows our lack of insight of what technology is at its core. This lack of insight is also an indication to our lack of understanding of how embedded technology is in our existence as humans. Most people today relate technology to higher level technological advancements when it goes much deeper than that.
When you look up the definition of “technology” you will get multiple definitions. The following definition is the most simple definition I found and in my opinion the most accurate:
Definition of Technology: “A capability given by the practical application of knowledge.”
When you run with a simplistic definition like that and start to ponder on it, you can begin to actually see how profound technology is to human existence. Let’s say I have a walnut that is too hard to crack open. I pick up a rock and knowing the rock is hard, I smash it on the walnut to break it open. The rock just became technology. I realize lots of folks will argue with me on this. Challenging with, “That must mean an otter can create technology.” Many definitions of technology state “human knowledge” so technology is considered a human thing even though some animals do use tools. Interestingly there was a time where it was taught that humans were the only species that was capable of using tools. This has since been proven to be false. The word was first introduced in English in the 17th century and was derived from the Greek words Techne meaning art or craft and logos meaning word or speech. Over time the definition has been modified. Current definitions are all analogous to the definition given above and all refer to human knowledge.
Technology Old and New
Now that we better understand what technology is, it becomes clear that just about everything we use in life is technology. When the first human picked up a rock or a stick to fend off an attacker or kill prey, rocks and sticks were technology. In my youth, we used the word “tool” and not technology to refer to ancient or prehistoric technology. Today, technology is essentially anywhere humanity has applied knowledge to create or improve something.
What this means is, every generation is introduced to the latest forms of technology created by previous generations. When we consider that Homo Sapiens came to be about 250 to 300 thousand years ago, that’s a lot of generations of humans. Somewhere between 4000 and 6000 generations depending upon the life span you use for humans to do the simple math. However, the advancement of technology over the past 200 years has dwarfed the creation of technology prior to that. Nevertheless, each generation is introduced to a different reality or normalcy of life depending upon what technology was introduced by the generations before them. The introduction of spears opened up new food options as well as defense. The invention of buckets allowed the carrying of water away from the river or stream. Bow and arrows further expanded food options and defense. Today, we can still find the old technology in a dusty closet or museum somewhere while we prefer the newer technology to walk, ride or fly in life with a screen 6 inches from our noses!
Born into a Different Reality Due to Technology
Generational advances of technology have changed the human perspective of normalcy and reality. Each generation literally trains their children to be less Naturally human and more Techno-human and dependent upon technology. It has also moved humans up the food chain on the planet. Technology has lifted humans from prey to the ultimate predator. Take a minute to let that sink in. Think of the predators of the Earth and consider how many of them a human could stand up to with no technology. We can skip right past the big predators like bears, big cats and apes. Humans simply do not have the strength, speed or built in tools to compete. Without technology, humans are inferior to pretty much all large animals, even grazing animals. There is no way a human without technology would be able to take on a bison, bull or even a cow. We would not be able to domesticate horses or oxen. How would we contain or control domesticated animals? We would have no fences or ropes. Without technology humans fall quite far down on the food chain. Super Techno-humans are what sits at the top of the food chain today and we are not using our super power very responsibly either! Modern technology clears and converts thousands of acres of Nature’s land to build cities, roads and farmland. A task non Techno-humans could not possibly hope to accomplish. Ironically, due to our dependency on technology, we do much less with our minds and bodies than ancient humans did. We like to think we are superior to our ancient ancestors, but in reality, the majority of us are less physically fit and we depend on technology to do much of our thinking for us. With life being so much easier now, we are living much longer, but we seem to have picked up a lot more problems as well. How did ancient people manage without allergy medications or toothbrushes and tooth paste? Just fine apparently!
Super Techno-Humans, the Good and the Bad
So without technology, humans fall from the seat of superiority at the top of the food chain of the Earth. Not only can we not compete physically with the majority of animals on the planet, we are also not capable of providing shelter or clothing for ourselves. We can’t construct many types of shelter or cut down trees to build structures. We have no means of even making simple loincloths without a cutting tool. Humans are weak, slow movers and even slower developers and learners compared to other species. We are limited to warm climates that offer an abundance of available fresh water, simple plant food that is easy to forage and has naturally occurring caves or other places to hide from predators. The fact we even persisted hints that previous species of humans were better equipped to survive before they began inventing tools. It probably didn’t take very long before the early use of tools began, some humans realized our creation of technology presented pros and cons. The rock used to crack open a walnut can also be used to crack open a human skull. The spear used to catch a fish or kill a rabbit for a meal could also be used to kill another human to take their fish or rabbit. As we rise up the food chain to become superior to our most feared predators, we create an even more dangerous and deadly adversary, ourselves. As we have increased our technological power, we have evolved to be the most feared thing on the planet by all living things, including humans!
Without technology, we most assuredly would never have gotten the notion we are superior to all other life on the Earth or that some god created all things just for us. Technology has boosted our egos to astronomically unrealistic levels and twisted our minds to completely believe we are something other than animals of the Earth. Perhaps it’s time we ate some humble pie and became responsible and compatible animals of the Earth again.
Let’s not forget how great the food is now at the top. Everyone is overweight and trying to figure out why we have so many chronic diseases. Certainly it has nothing to do with all that highly processed toxic food we consume!
With Techno-Communications Comes Deception
According to our definition, the development of language also falls under technology. Using knowledge to relate specific meaning to sound and symbols. This gives us communications. Before the technology of communications we were not able to tell stories or share knowledge. Certainly this benefits our ability to pass information along to future generations so we can retain and advance our technologies. This also introduces our ability to develop organizations. We can define roles like leaders and followers or tyrants and slaves! In addition, we learn to manipulate and take advantage of others with lies, myths, false gods and terrifying stories. We begin the terrible conflicts of truth versus deception and cooperation versus competition. Some become masters at spreading hate and prejudice.
As each generation is born into a new world with new technology, we are adding to our benefits and detriments as we modify the foundational environment our children see as the normal world. Each invention seems to bring benefits and our innovation finds a means to also use it against one another. Newer generations have a much broader range of food and we are more capable of defending ourselves from other predators, but now we must fear other humans as much or more than even the most feared non human predators. Instead of our children learning how to find food, shelter and water to survive on the planet, they learn to use a TV remote, play on a cell phone, grab a juice box from the refrigerator and be leery of other humans.
From Water to Money to Energy
As generational advances of technology change the human perspective of normalcy and reality from generation to generation, we also appear to be lifting different things to the top of our priority list. When humanity was closest to Nature, water was our most important necessity, closely followed by food and shelter. As technology advanced, the systems we developed pushed money to the top of our ladder of importance. To those who drive the world today, money means far more than water or anything else on the planet, including the planet itself. Technological advancement has moved humans further from Nature and more dependent upon a very fragile human created infrastructure. As we keep progressing, the importance of money is about to be replaced by the need for energy. If you think about every type of technology you can, from the most simple to the most complex, there are very few that are not dependent upon energy for their creation or direct use. Today, even our water and food are completely dependent upon human generated energy. Water is filtered, purified and pumped to our desired location. Without modern power equipment, there is no way we could produce the food needed to feed the current exorbitant population.
Our primary source of energy is fossil fuels and we know their time is running out. If we do not find a sustainable source of energy, our world of technology will completely collapse. The vast majority of billions of humans will be wiped out. Needless to say, this should scare the hell out of you when you consider how possible this actually is of happening. The majority of our alternatives so far depend on fossil fuels or some other type of fuel that is finite. Even many of the renewable alternatives require fossil fuels in some way in their creation. It is astounding that most of us can be so petrified about possibly losing our energy and our technology, yet care so little about the one and only thing that allows our existence in the first place, the Earth. With our technology we are working 24–7 to pollute, consume and destroy nearly every aspect of our planet and we think nothing of it. At the same time we lament worrying if our stock price will go up or when the power will come back on. Techno-humans certainly appear to be very narrow minded and short sighted. Could this by why the phrase “history repeats itself” came to be and human empires rise and fall?
Extremists
What would a world of humans be without our extremists. Throughout history we have had our cultural extremists, national extremists, religious extremists and most prominent and persistent of all, our wealth and power extremists. People who are so enthralled with their culture, nation, religion wealth or power they are willing to go to any degree to protect or promote their cause, including the destruction of others, self and the planet. Though technological extremists have not been publicly labeled as such yet, they certainly exist. The most logical reason they have not been identified as extremists is because they are supported by all the modern means of spreading information. But it is even more fundamental than that, technology appeals to our instinctive psychological drive to progress. Humans strive to make life easier and more pleasurable and technology rarely fails to satisfy that fundamental passion. Humanity is truly addicted to technology. You thought taking a bottle away from an alcoholic or taking cigarettes away from a smoker was difficult. Just try your hand at confiscating someone’s Smartphone!
Today the world is driven by a majority who believe that humanity can face any challenge the universe could possibly throw at us and we will be able to innovate our way out of it. We exist on a finite planet with limited capabilities of regeneration and our most revered leaders and intellects insist we are capable of infinite population growth and consumption of the Earth’s finite resources. That would be akin to saying we can invent a device that could irrigate a 100,000 acre farm with a single gallon of water! Yes, technology has made us super human, but it is still limited by what it has to work with. Our technology is limited by what the Earth has available for our technology to manipulate. We have not devised technology that can make things out of nothing, but some of our brightest and most intelligent influencers are trying to convince us that we have, or at least that it doesn’t matter.
For decades our super human technology has been emptying the Earth’s storage supply warehouse to meet our greedy human wants and the majority of us have been ignorant to this because our leaders have a golden goose they do not want to give up so they deny the facts. Technology has become the modern method of controlling humanity by a very small group of puppet masters. Technology keeps the majority happy and entertained enough where we don’t realize we are being manipulated and controlled. Technology is the modern “Bread and Circuses” and being used to entertain and satisfy us into passivity. Derived from the Roman poet Juvenal to imply if you keep the people fed and entertained, they will not revolt. Originally this referred to government, but today it applies well to tyrants, oligarchs and technocrats. People are constantly glued to their phones, computers and televisions and less aware of the actual world around us. But let’s not stop there. We cannot wait to enter the world of virtual reality with the hope that the Holodeck is not far behind!
Incapable of Breaking Our Addiction to Modern Technology
The majority of our modern complex innovations present one or more benefits while typically presenting far more detriments. Many detriments remain unknown or we ignore until they become uncontrollable disasters. Yet we insist on keeping the technology and encourage the continued mass production of it. While level headed scientists are sounding the alarms that we are pushing all the limits of the planet, the modern technological-industrial(MTI) extremists are working to convince the world we need to keep increasing population so we can birth more geniuses to create more and better technology. It appears that humanity has become addicted to technology to the point of insanity. Science and logic do not apply if it does not support the never ending expansion of technology. Our current pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be one of the most intensive energy consumers of all our innovations. While we panic over our entire technological world collapsing and potentially wiping out humanity due to insufficient energy, the MTI world charges forward in pursuit of AI despite its energy gluttony. The benefits of AI are enticing while the detriments could be catastrophic. However, just as we set off the first atomic bomb not knowing if it would create an unstoppable chain reaction explosion, so too are we going to keep moving forward to see what detriments AI will impose upon us. We just have to have our next fix!
Techno leaders are pushing forward with AI for the money while government leaders drive for the global power and control though scared to death some other country will beat them to the finish line. The fear and distrust of others is probably the most fundamental reason the drive for AI is now unstoppable. The best we can hope for is that AI becomes so intelligent and capable that it figures out all the flaws humans have built into it and corrects them. Most of all we hope it figures out the necessity of harmony and balance in Nature and decides to educate humanity to exist with those concepts as fundamentals of life rather than applying the human thought process that would eliminate parasites and irritating destructive pests!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gregg Lavoie is a graduate of Northeastern University’s college of Business Administration. In his diverse career across multiple industries, he has been a leader in the management of numerous industrial manufacturing facilities, found success in B2B sales, has spearheaded the creation and deployment of quality assurance operations and has designed, created and successfully established multiple employee training and educational programs in manufacturing as well as software development organizations. Now retired, Gregg is still passionate about improving the well-being of humanity and improving the human experience into the future. Gregg firmly believes that this can only be possible if humanity can first come to understand and appreciate that our existence is 100% dependent on the Earth, its resources, environmental systems and diversity of life. Gregg advocates that as the most advanced species on the planet it is our duty and primary responsibility to ensure we live in a manner that without question guarantees the health of the Earth as well as the balance and stability of its systems and the abundance of biodiversity. This will not happen unless the human species can educate itself to adopt more sustainable, cooperative and environmentally friendly fundamental methods of existence.
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